Recently, Alexander Volkov defeated Fabricio Werdum in the 4th round of their UFC Fight Night 127 Main Event matchup. He used his striking to finish Werdum, a world class Jiu Jitsu athlete.
However, leading up to the event, Volkov had some choice words for the Jiu Jitsu community while speaking to the effectiveness of Jiu Jitsu in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
“Jiu-jitsu has a really long and rich history in MMA, but compared to the past, jiu-jitsu is not as important as it used to be. Less and less people who are only good at jiu-jitsu become UFC champions,” he said.
“Werdum is a really high-level jiu-jitsu player, and he’s definitely stronger than me in that area. He would win if we were just doing jiu-jitsu, but we’re not just doing jiu-jitsu.
“This is an MMA fight and I think it’s very difficult to submit guys who wrestle and also train in jiu-jitsu. I won’t trade submission with him, I’m going to strike with him and try to knock him out. I think it will be very difficult for him to submit me.”
What do you think about Alexander Volkov’s statement on Jiu Jitsu in the sport of MMA?
Andy Gonzalez is a coach at Aces Jiu Jitsu Club. He has earned his BJJ Brown Belt under 2nd Degree Black Belt, Professor Mikal Abdullah. Follow Andy on Twitter at @GoGoGonzilla
Andy lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Amanda and their 3 beautiful children. Andy is also the father of a Marine who is honorably serving in the United States Marine Corps.